DNA can sustain serious injuries called double strand breaks, in which both strands of the helix snap. These breaks are among the most dangerous forms of DNA damage and immediately trigger the cell's ...

DNA repair is essential for the maintenance of genomic stability and its failure can lead to human disease. Various DNA repair systems exist, such as base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair, ...

Following a double-strand DNA break, an enzyme called PARP1 helps hold the two strands together —like superglue— and creates a safe zone for other proteins to come repair the damage. We don’t exactly ...

Although DNA is tightly packed and protected within the cell nucleus, it is constantly threatened by damage from normal ...

Homologous recombination is a DNA repair mechanism that counteracts double-stranded breaks in DNA. Researchers at Kindai University have recently revealed how the Sae2 protein coordinates with the ...

In a quiet lab at Utrecht University, researchers have built a tool that lets you watch one of life’s most serious crises unfold in real time. Inside every cell, DNA breaks, repairs, and sometimes ...

Our DNA undergoes constant damage and repair. The most severe damage happens when the DNA breaks into two pieces, known as a double-strand DNA break. It creates two loose DNA ends that, if left ...

Researchers have discovered how cells activate a last-resort DNA repair system when severe damage strikes. When genetic tangles overwhelm normal repair pathways, cells flip on a fast but error-prone ...

A powerful new discovery reveals that Nup98 a protein once thought to only ferry molecules through the nucleus plays a vital role in safeguarding the most vulnerable areas of DNA. By forming ...

The human genome consists of 3 billion base pairs, and when a cell divides, it takes about seven hours to complete making a copy of its DNA. That's almost 120,000 base pairs per second. At that ...